Polished Off

Just like Hugo Boss cologne was deconstructed, Wired delves into the products within products...like Kiwi Shoe Polish.

Heavy Naphtha
Naphtha is a catchall term for any petroleum distillate that boils at 122 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Because there are so many, that they needed a common term. It dissolves wax, spreads it into a thin layer, and then evaporates, just like your hope of losing weight. Remember how in Taxi Driver DeNiro set his shoe polish on fire to melt it before applying it to his boots? Well, like Travis Bickle, naphtha is highly combustible.

3′, 6′-Bis-(Diethylamino)-Fluoran
This dye can also be found in carbonless paper and the heat-sensitive rolls used in old-time fax machines. Now there's less fax machines, we can party with this stuff!

4-Diethylaminoazobenzene
The molecules of this dye produced from diazonium salt have a nitrogen double bond at their heart, which helps them absorb and reflect extremely specific wavelengths of light. Result: intense colors. And much cheaper than a tab of LSD. Diazonium salt can also be extremely unstable (that means explosive). But that doesn’t mean your wing tips will suddenly detonate. That hardly ever happens.

Carnauba Wax
This oozes from the leaves of the Brazilian tree Copernicia prunifera. Because it’s organic and edible, the wax is ubiquitous in consumer goods: the texture of chewing gum, the slick coating on dental floss, even the shine on store-bought apples. On shoes, it provides a waterproof coating, and it can be buffed to a dapper sheen. And if you're in the produce section, you can touch up your footwear.

Stoddard Solvent
This mix of long-chain petroleum distillates was developed in 1924 by an Atlanta dry cleaner named William Joseph Stoddard. It’s very similar to naphtha and plays an identical role in the polish. And it's so cheap, they throw it in there for free - such a deal! The chemicals are so strong that inhaling them produces roughly the same effects (dizziness, giddiness) as huffing gasoline. And you don't need to stand at the pump.

1, 2, 4-Trimethyl Benzene
This is really just a byproduct from the manufacture of Stoddard solvent. But it’s a cool one: TMB is also used to hunt neutrinos — tiny particles that emanate from the sun. If a neutrino interacts with a TMB atom, it produces a brief flash of light. And with open flame there's even more flashing light.

Solvent Black 7 (Nigrosin)
Scientists like to dribble this dye onto biological cells to make them more visible under a microscope. Since shoe leather is made up of animal skin cells, what better way to color them than with a cellular dye?